{"id":205470,"date":"2021-10-18T17:56:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/civil-society-in-eastern-equatoria-trained-by-unmiss-on-documenting-human-rights-violations?lang=en"},"modified":"2021-10-18T17:56:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:56:57","slug":"civil-society-in-eastern-equatoria-trained-by-unmiss-on-documenting-human-rights-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/civil-society-in-eastern-equatoria-trained-by-unmiss-on-documenting-human-rights-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil society in Eastern Equatoria trained by UNMISS on documenting human rights violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/a8c3a35061456c4\/600\/418\" alt=\"United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There has been great pressure on the civilian population in Eastern Equatoria to stop human rights violations during conflicts and intercommunal violence,&rdquo; said Anthony Nwapa, a Human Rights officer working with the UN peacekeeping mission. &ldquo;We want to start addressing these challenges with you as a team.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Nwapa was speaking at a two-day sensitization workshop organized by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for local networks including civil society actors, women, youth, traditional and community leaders and faith-based organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions were aimed at training activists in collecting and sharing information on conflict-related violations and early warning indicators, as well as creating and fostering capacity-building and exchange initiatives among themselves.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 40 participants were urged to work together to achieve shared objectives.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We must be very strong, vibrant and active in our roles to create the environment where people can freely discuss human rights concerns,&rdquo; said Charles Okullu, Chairperson of the state&rsquo;s Civil Society Network. &ldquo;I also call upon the government to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>According to some activists, violations are underreported largely because of challenges involved in identifying evidence as well as the right office to report to, and the fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Some of our cultural norms, especially where it concerns early and forced marriage, and blood compensation, which involves compensating bereaved families with a young girl from the perpetrator&rsquo;s family, go against basic human rights principles. However, it is becoming more and more clear to me how I can support victims to get justice,&rdquo; said Angel Karama Christine, one of the trainees.<\/p>\n<p>In Eastern Equatoria, many civil society groups find it difficult to meet their targets of preventing or redressing human rights violations against vulnerable populations because of a lack of teamwork amongst relevant actors. For workshop participants, this training marks the beginning of better networking for grassroots advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As a faith-based organization, we have decided to do our part to support other human rights organizations and pertinent state authorities to prevent and mitigate abuses,&rdquo; said Reverend Oryem Solomon,Chair of the state&rsquo;s Inter-Church Committee.<\/p>\n<p>The workshop concluded with resolutions by participants to revive an old human rights forum to serve as a common platform for all stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>This, they hope, will strengthen collaboration through joint discussions, and encourage important partnerships between Police Community Relations Committees and grassroots bodies.<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"well well-sm\"><b>Media files<\/b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/f1e471073094380\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/f1e471073094380\" alt=\"United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)\" style=\"max-width:500px;\"\/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/f1e471073094380\">Download logo<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;There has been great pressure on the civilian population in Eastern Equatoria to stop human rights violations during conflicts and intercommunal violence,&rdquo; said Anthony Nwapa, a Human Rights officer working with the UN peacekeeping mission. &ldquo;We want to start addressing these challenges with you as a team.&rdquo; Mr. Nwapa was speaking at a two-day sensitization [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-205470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/civil-society-in-eastern-equatoria-trained-by-unmiss-on-documenting-human-rights-violations.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}